Research on flexible shapes and structures by unitizing bamboo weavings

Abstract

Bamboo products are disappearing in people’s lives. At the same time, “Chiku-gai”-- the environmental damage brought by the growing of bamboo -- is becoming more and more serious. Traditional bamboo crafts are not just tools for daily life, but also a culture that has been handed down over a long history. The processing of bamboo is mainly a domain of handicraft, and weaving skill is still confined to the range of human hands.
This research extracted the basic shapes by unitizing the traditional bamboo craft, and designed joints (parts) by using laser processing technology, thereby elided the steps requiring weaving techniques. By realizing the flexibility of combining and removing bamboo weaving parts easily and freely, one can create bamboo craft with less limitation and diverse possibilities.